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YANGON: Security forces swept through Myanmar's main city Thursday, killing nine people including a Japanese journalist, and arresting hundreds more in a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
At least 50,000 people, many of them youths and students, swarmed into Yangon undeterred by the deaths the day before of at least four protesters, including three Buddhist monks, and repeatedly defied orders to disperse.
As the shots rang out, they ran for their lives, only to regroup and face down the might of Myanmar's military government which has exerted iron rule over the impoverished country for more than four decades.
In six hours of chaotic protests, state media said nine people were killed and another 11 protesters injured including one woman.
"The protesters threw bricks, sticks and knives at the security forces, so because of the desperate situation the security forces had to fire warning shots," it said, adding 31 police and soldiers were also wounded.
Japanese national Kenji Nagai, 50, a journalist for Tokyo-based video and photo agency APF News, is the first foreign victim of the crackdown.
It was the tenth straight day that large protests have erupted against the ruling military government, which caused outrage in this impoverished Southeast Asian nation by doubling fuel prices on August 15.
British diplomatic sources said there was evidence that monks whose monastery was raided before dawn were "badly beaten", with large amounts of blood found in their dormitories after they were hauled away.
The raid was one of at least three in Yangon's east, which each triggered clashes as hundreds of supporters tried to prevent monks from being hauled away by authorities in an apparent bid to prevent them from leading the protests.
In the city centre, at least 100 other people were taken into custody, thrown into military trucks after troops issued an ultimatum threatening "extreme action" unless they dispersed.
Groups of people were forced to lie on their stomachs while they were searched, and if found with cameras or cell phones -- which are rare in Myanmar -- they were beaten and their equipment was smashed.
State media accused Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy, of fomenting the unrest by paying people to take part in the protests.
It said that two NLD members, Hla Pe and Myint Thei, had been questioned along with two ethnic party leaders, Htaung Ko Htan and Chin Sian Thang, for their role in the "uprising".
NLD officials said earlier that the two prominent members had been arrested in raids on their homes during the night.
In scenes of naked defiance and anger that the heavy-handed tactics have failed to crush, ordinary people screamed abuse at soldiers and cried openly as they exchanged news of deaths and injuries.
"You are eating food given to you by the people. Yet you kill people and you kill the monks!" an elderly man screamed at the impassive soldiers in Yangon's downtown.
The protests, led by the monks whose revered status had previously made them almost untouchable, have drawn as many as 100,000 people onto the streets in the biggest challenge to the military government for 20 years.
The violence triggered a new round of worldwide condemnation. The United States demanded that the ruling generals end "violence against peaceful protesters" calling the crackdown "outrageous."
"The Burmese government should not stand in the way of its people's desire for freedom," said White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
The UN Security Council urged the government to meet a UN envoy, and the European Union said it was "deeply troubled."
China, Myanmar's biggest trading partner and chief ally, issued its first public call for the military government to show restraint Thursday, but did not directly condemn the crackdown.
International media rights group Reporters Without Borders said it was "appalled" at the death of the Japanese journalist.
Thailand-based analyst Win Min, who fled a 1988 crackdown when at least 3,000 people were killed, predicted the movement would grow, saying pictures of security forces attacking monks would fuel anger.
"They also believe that this is the best chance ever since 1988" to bring democracy, he added. - AFP/ac
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